Ravi Tandukar

I got given a book at a newly formed book club at work – We’ll prescribe you a cat by Shyo Ishida, a Japanese bestseller.

Finished one of the stories from the book in the weekend. It turned out to be a refreshing, easy flowing story set in the cobbled, mysterious streets of Kyoto involving a young salesman stuck in a daily rut of a sweatshop grade work at a ‘prestigious’ firm, working for a psychopathic boss and a his quest to find a mental health support necessiated by the toll the job has taken on his soul and body.

The prescription of a cat given by the doctor at Nakagyo Kokoro clinic seems quite unusual at first but when you slowly go through the change the on-loan pet (medicine) brings to the young man’s life, your jaws will drop and eyes widen up at the simplicity and craftiness with which the writer sheds light on his current state of life, courage to jump off the dehumanising job, accepting his own flaws, and finding himself within and fall in love at the same time, all brought about by sensuality of a quiet small, abandoned, orphaned she cat. She is basically the medicine for his soul.

Its Japanese literature at world class, a masterpiece of storytelling.

Its sometimes hard to imagine power of one thing you stopped doing or believing, sometimes out of being in and out so many times that you are convinced you are doing the right thing, sometimes an impusilve, impromptu decision, sometimes listening to a good advise you have been ignoring, change your life so much, its night and day.

Few thoughts:

• Caring about what people think, giving a fu*k
• Believing in god.
• Dealing with guilt from the things that the younger and more foolish me did.
• Hanging around toxic/mean people.
• Drinking
• Smoking
• Chasing after ungratefuls who were indifferent to us.
• Thinking everyone else was better than me, then realised everyone else was flawed in someway!
• Worrying – Whenever something bothered me, I started doing a deep dive into what was bothering me. It was astonishing to find out that almost nothing real ever was.
• Watching network TV.
• I stopped feeling guilty for saying no.
• Trusting people
• Letting my self importance guide me
• Following up text and other messages to those who otherwise ghost until they want something
• Caring and worrying about things out of my control
• Stop caring about politics.
• Assuming
• Being in a hurry..
  
  …add yours.

A green\turquoise-coloured house in Trishuli Bazaar, Nepal survived the mighty inland Tsunami – when the rest of the whole area on both side of the river were swept away, obliretated and sunk beneath metres of mud. There were people in the house when it was struck, all of them survived! It looks battered and badly beaten up, but there it is still standing tall on its feet, against the mightiest force of mother nature and against all odds. It basically beat the landslide and the floods, both and protected who sheltered inside itself and became a symbol of survival!

Just how? A miracle, luck or a simple proper Civil engineering? May be a mix?

Some suggested that the house’s reinforced-concrete frame and steel reinforcement may have played an important role. The structure reportedly had a continuous framework connecting its columns, beams and foundation, allowing it to withstand powerful sideways forces from the flood and debris. There you go, a worthy lesson in construction!

Its position may also have helped. The house was reportedly slightly away from the deepest part of the debris-flow channel and on comparatively higher ground, allowing some of the strongest flow to pass around rather than directly through it. There was also a part of the hill on the river bank that prevented direct hit on the house.

Some people have described it online as a miracle or divine protection, while others have credited the building’s engineering and its location. There might have been other similarly built houses that got hit by the floods, but only this one managed to stand.

Whatever the reason—engineering, location, luck, or a divine intervention—the image of the lone green house surrounded by devastation has captured attention around the world.

For the family who lived through it, however, there is no debate about how it felt. They probably believed they were facing death. Instead, they walked away with definitely a new life.

Its an age old, arrogant question that is alive and well.
Some thoughts:

• Is it human imagination who created God?
• If God has created everything, he must have created himself too! Keyword is: EVERYTHING.
• Self created system?
• MATTER itself cannot be created or destroyed.
• The one from Bible.Or Vedas or Quran
• Aliens
• Blah..blah..blah..

Simple and truthful answer is we don’t know, why don’t we try to stop overthinking or find answer to an impossible?

IMHO there is no need to know who created God or even us, just because you can ask does not mean you should or can! Don’t overestimate your capabilities as humans, we can’t know everything, so its very important to be humble, who knows for sure but curiosity might indeed have killed the cat!

I am so convinced its Messi, not CR7!
Every time I try to type Lionel Messi,
the keyboard automatically corrects it to “GOAT”